altacled
CONFIDENTIAL
Top Copy on HIKKO27/5
MKCK040/13
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
15 NOV 1983
DESK OFFICER
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HKK 27/5.
FROM: R D Clift
49
Hong Kong Dept
PA
HUISTRY
stion Taken
DATE :
8 November 1983
17
HONG KONG : LETTER FROM MR ROBERT ADLEY ́MP
CC :
PS/Mr Luce
Mr Donald
Mr Clarke,
News Dept
PROBLEM
1. How to reply to a letter sent to the Secretary of State by Mr Robert Adley MP alleging that a leading English-language newspaper in Hong Kong was told by the Hong Kong Government Office that it
would be helpful if a way could be found to blacken Mr Adley's
character prior to, or during, his forthcoming visit to the
Territory.
RECOMMENDATION
2. I recommend that the Secretary of State reply on the lines of
the attached draft. The Hong Kong Government has been consulted and
agrees.
3
BACKGROUND
3. We have been told by the Hong Kong Government Office in London that Mr Adley had made a similar allegation in a telephone call to the Office. They had asked him whether he was referring to their office and had been told that he meant the Hong Kong Government.
4.
Hong Kong telno 1690 gives an assurance that no-one in the Hong Kong Information Services Department has spoken to any member of the Press about Mr Adley, and that the Home Affairs Branch has only provided Radio Television Hong Kong and the South China Morning Post with factual background information about him. A mistaken impression may have arisen from a Press Briefing when the Secretary
CONFIDENTIAL